Wild Weather

Perhaps this post will just prove that I don't make it out of my "zone" often enough, but I was in Botafogo this afternoon for an appointment and late in the afternoon the sky became dark and it started to rain. I had my driver take me to Flamengo from there to hit up a store I thought I'd check out while "in the neighbourhood" but by the time we arrived, the streets were so flooded with rain that the store had closed down for the day. Lovely. And by this time it's closer to rush hour and I'm further from home, no blackberry or cell phone - plus my inlaws are in town and I needed to get home to try and entertain them!

I actually really wish I'd had a camera. The streets in Flamengo & Botafogo were extremely flooded and people were really just making do.  Women in heels (some had taken them off) trodding calf-deep in brown water, kids up to their waists, hand in hand on their way home from school. And don't get me started on thinking about how contaminated some of that water would be, with some of Rio's er, "developing" sewage "systems"...

As we drove along the car kept being rocked by they "waves" being created by the buses rushing past us and I was concerned for the air intake on the car as I had an experience with driving in too deep of water in a flash flood back home (car died for like 24 hrs and I had to be rescued!), but the driver seemed unconcerned and said this happened frequently.

By the time we pulled into Leblon, the sun was shining and the waves were crashing powerfully against the beach, there were signs of rain but nothing like what I'd seen just a few miles away - is it always like this????

Comments

[Corinne]

I remember flooding like that when I lived in Rio. Funny thing is it always seemed to happen on Friday afternoon. In fact I remmeber what seemed like months of rainy weekends which would end like clockwork on Monday morning!

I also remeber that it could be flooding in one part of the city and in other parts, not a cloud in the sky. Must have something to do with the mountains...

[DRL]

Yes Rio is strange that way!!! Yikes. Mountains do make for fast weather changes, I learned that living in western Canada!